


The Right Direction

by h_d



Series: Merlin Christmas Fest 2014 [4]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Americanisms, Enemies to Lovers, Explicit Language, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Implied Sexual Content, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-26
Updated: 2014-12-26
Packaged: 2018-03-03 15:50:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2856455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/h_d/pseuds/h_d
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone insists that Morgana has a crush on her sports rival, Sophia.  It's annoying.</p><p>(American high school AU in which Morgana and Sophia are star volleyball players from competing schools.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Right Direction

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Val_Creative](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Val_Creative/gifts).



> [Val_Creative](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Val_Creative), I was very excited to learn that we were matched up in the [merlinchristmasfest](http://merlinchristmasfest.tumblr.com/) gift exchange, because I really value your friendship and your contributions to fandom! I'm sorry that this doesn't match your prompt more closely, but it was definitely inspired by it.

Morgana hated Sophia Aulfric; just ask anyone.

"I _hate_ her," Morgana said, when she spotted Sophia from across the crowded room. 

"Is 'hate' a new way of saying 'want to make sweet love to'? Because I can only parse your sentence with that substitution," replied her stepbrother, Arthur.

"Parse? You are such a nerd," she said. 

It was true; Arthur and his boyfriend Merlin spent nearly every bit of their free time holed up in Arthur's bedroom, and it wasn't even for sex, most of the time. No, they were in there playing games and building gaming PCs and studying programming, every night and every weekend. 

They knew Morgana didn't actually care if they were the biggest nerds who ever lived. But since they had started dating, Arthur never even came to her room anymore to play console sports games with her. They had both joined the cheerleading squad, but while Merlin enjoyed gymnastics, Arthur was only there to (in his words) "pad out" his college applications with diverse extracurriculars. Neither of them were there to support Morgana, who was on the high school volleyball team.

Morgana realized she hadn't addressed what Arthur had actually accused her of.

"Wait—you think I _want_ her? She's been the bane of my existence for two years now. That vile girl is the reason there'll be a giant bruise on my forehead in the yearbook photo this year. How could you forget? I had a _concussion_. I'm lucky she didn't break my nose."

"You are _extremely_ skilled with makeup, Morgana. You have made your own YouTube tutorials. If you had wanted to cover that bruise up, you would have," Arthur said. 

"I tell everyone that I'm friends with a YouTube celebrity," Merlin said, beaming at her.

"I'm not really a celebrity, but thanks, Merlin," Morgana said. She liked Merlin. He was good to Arthur (which mattered a lot to her, although she'd never tell Arthur that), but she also liked the fact that Merlin often gave her compliments.

"Yeah, I watch them all. The one about the concealer came in handy last week when Arthur got that zit—I bought some stuff at the drugstore and rushed to your house before school, because otherwise, he was going to stay home, and he had that big presentation—I mean—" He clapped a hand over his own mouth and mumbled to Arthur, "I wasn't supposed to say anything about that, was I?"

"Shut up, Merlin," Arthur said. Merlin stuck his tongue out at him.

"The point is," Arthur continued pompously, "we're all aware of the truth. You let yourself be photographed with that bruise because you wanted the entire world to know that you'd done battle with the beauteous queen of the fairies—"

"Beauteous queen of the fairies? What?" she interrupted. "Is that a boss in one of your games or something?"

"No, but she does kind of look like—you know, Merlin." 

Merlin chuckled. "She does. But speaking of that, actually, I do have some wisdom for you, Morgana," he said, and Morgana arched an eyebrow at him. "If I've learned anything from video games, it's that when you meet enemies, it means that you're going in the right direction."

"In which the right direction is towards Sophia's bed," Arthur added. 

They guffawed and gave each other high-fives. Morgana left them to it, her heels clicking satisfyingly on the marble floor.

Morgana had been looking forward to this event. It was a social gathering to promote good sportsmanship on the night before the end-of-season game. Both of the teams were staying in a relatively nice hotel near the college gym where the game would be held the next day. Last year's game, between the same two schools, had attracted a lot of press attention, so tickets for this year were in great enough demand that a larger venue was needed.

Everyone had dressed up tonight. Morgana was wearing subtle eye makeup and dark red lipstick, along with a short blue dress that she knew displayed her body very well. If she had spent hours last night experimenting at her vanity with her best cosmetics in order to find the most dramatic look, and trying on all of her dresses in front of her full-length mirror in order to choose the sexiest one—well, her bedroom door had been locked, and no one else ever needed to know. 

Most of the girls on both teams were looking at her, she noticed, as she headed to the punch bowl for a refill. She wondered if any of them liked girls. She wondered if Sophia was watching.

Her best friend Gwen waved her over before she got there. Gwen was wearing a purple blouse and black miniskirt. She was cute, smart, and funny, but lately, she was only interested in schoolwork, cheerleading, and—

"Lance bought a ticket to come and see me perform tomorrow," she said. "Did I tell you?"

"Yeah," Morgana said. 

Actually, she had no idea whether Gwen had told her that or not. She tried to ignore everything Gwen said about her boyfriend Lance. Why was everyone she knew already ensconced in happy little romances? They were only 18. These were supposed to be the days of anonymous hookups and other questionable decisions, not of knitting each other sweaters (as Lance did for Gwen) or of building castles for each other in Minecraft (as Arthur did for Merlin). 

They were sweet gestures, sure, but Morgana could have met any number of available girls to introduce to the joys of lady-loving if the people she knew acted like irresponsible teenagers, instead of like boring adults. Actually, Morgana needed an introduction to those pleasures herself, but she tried not to think about that. 

Gwen was still talking. "Of course he's coming to watch me and the rest of the cheerleading squad, but he's also going to be watching the game. He loves our volleyball games most of all, he told me. The team is fantastic this year, I just know you're going to win." 

Coach Annis had told Morgana the same thing before they boarded the bus to the event, only far less enthusiastically. 

"I'll be counting on you to play your best out there tomorrow, Morgana. There's no reason to allow that Aulfric girl to distract you, as you did at the start of the season. There's a time and a place for ogling one's adversary, and it's not on the court. Do I make myself clear?"

"Um," Morgana said.

"Now, I am not homophobic," she said, "but I was watching closely, and I reviewed the video afterward. You were at least partially responsible for that injury."

"I was not!" Morgana protested. "She's a menace! She aimed that spike right at my face."

"She most definitely didn't. You were out of your proper position because you were off your game that day. Talk to her at the social thing, okay? The way you are, I'm sure your attraction to her will disappear as soon as you get to know her better."

"Gee, thanks," said Morgana.

"It was a compliment. We should all be discerning about our relationships, if we can. I've noticed you tend to make good choices in the people you associate with," Annis said. 

At the praise, Morgana's dormant crush on Annis, which she'd buried because it was foolish and possibly a bit creepy, suddenly came back to life.

"Are you going to be staying at the hotel with us?" Morgana asked, blinking slowly at Annis in a way she hoped was seductive.

"Of course I am," Annis said. "And you can stop what you're doing right now if you still want to be on the team at all."

"Yes, Coach Annis," Morgana sighed, with familiar disappointment. At least Annis actually _was_ an adult, unlike Morgana's friends. It was a good thing she hadn't developed a crush on any of them, since they were all paired off now.

Gwen's voice snapped Morgana back to the present. "Are you even listening to me?" 

"Sorry, no," Morgana admitted. 

"Just talk to Sophia, will you? She's right over there. Lance used to go to her school. He says she's not that bad," Gwen said, shrugging.

That really wasn't what Morgana wanted to hear.

"Maybe I don't care about what Lance has to say. Why does everyone think I'm interested in her, anyway?" Morgana demanded.

"I can't talk to you when you're like this," Gwen announced. "I'm going to find Arthur and Merlin."

Morgana did feel a little bit bad about that. They'd been best friends since they were five years old, and of course she would apologize later, in their hotel room. She shouldn't have lost her temper.

But she was just so frustrated at the moment, and so tired of people's meddling. Okay, yes, she had an enormous crush on her sports rival, so what? So fucking what if Morgana had a sketchbook full of doodles of Sophia, of her face, of her naked body in various poses, of Sophia dressed up in all of Morgana's own clothes? No one else had seen those drawings; no one could prove anything. 

She held her head high and glared at all the players and coaches and cheerleaders, daring any of them to challenge her. 

Across the room, Sophia looked like she was doing the same thing. Their eyes met. A predatory smile overtook Sophia's delicate features as she strode away from her own friends and—oh _shit_ —right towards Morgana.

 _Stay calm,_ she told herself. _She's nothing to you. She's just a pretty girl with a mean streak. You'll defeat her tomorrow and you'll stop drawing her, do not look at her cleavage—_ but it was too late, because Morgana's eyes had already reached the plunging neckline of Sophia's gold-lamé dress. At the same time Morgana registered that the dress was tawdry, she was hit with a fierce desire to bury her face between Sophia's full breasts and lavish them with kisses. _Damn it._ She took a deep breath to steady herself.

"Morgana, I've been looking for you," Sophia said, extending her hand. 

Oh, she wanted to fucking shake hands? Sophia was making this victory too easy for her. 

She gripped Sophia's hand and shook it in the way she'd shaken rival players' hands since early childhood: firm, vigorous, as intimidating as possible, making sure to smile coldly and maintain eye contact. A thrill ran through her when Sophia matched the strength of her grip and simply smirked at Morgana.

"I wanted to apologize," Sophia said, withdrawing her hand. "I didn't mean to hurt you in our last game. I hope nothing will come of it tomorrow."

"Afraid I'll damage your good looks?" Morgana said evenly.

Sophia's smile grew wide. "Are there good looks to damage?"

"I think you know the answer to that," Morgana replied, looking away and feigning boredom. _Keep it together, you can do this, keep it together...._

"I did feel bad about what happened," Sophia said. She sounded sincere, but Morgana didn't know her nearly well enough to trust her. "I'm so glad that you've recovered."

And then she raised her hand to Morgana's forehead, stroking her fingertips gently across the skin. Morgana's face flamed hot, and her eyes widened when she noticed that Sophia was blushing, too. 

Sophia leaned in so close that Morgana could smell her bold, woodsy perfume. It wasn't a scent Morgana would have expected someone with such a feminine appearance to wear, but the surprise of it only increased Sophia's allure.

She felt Sophia's breath against her ear as she whispered, "I'm in room 1422. My roommate is out with the flu. You should come by tonight, because otherwise, I'd be all alone. Wouldn't that be a tragedy?"

"I'll come," Morgana whispered back, and the soft strawberry-blonde curls at Sophia's ear tickled her lips. "And so will you."

Sophia's predatory look was back when she stepped away from Morgana, and she continued to keep her voice low, so that Morgana had to move closer in order to hear her. 

"That's good to know, because I never settle for less than the best," Sophia said, reaching forward to brush Morgana's hair away from her shoulders. Her touch lingered on Morgana's bare skin. "Are you sure you have what it takes?"

"Do you?" Morgana asked. She tried the slow blink again. Judging by Sophia's gasp, it was far more effective this time.

\------------

At the hotel breakfast buffet before the game the next morning, Morgana filled up her plate and headed for Arthur and Merlin's table.

"What the fuck happened to your neck?" Arthur asked, aghast.

Morgana fingered the bruise that Sophia had sucked into her skin the previous night—well, one of several bruises, but it was the only one that was visible right now. Sophia was wearing matching marks; Morgana knew that many of her friends (and Coach Annis) would be able to put two and two together, but she wasn't ashamed at all.

"I want the entire world to know that I've done battle with the beauteous queen of the fairies," she said. 

The boys exchanged glances and then stared at her.

"Did you win?" Merlin asked.

Morgana shrugged. "I think we both did." 

After all, Sophia only lived in the next town over, and they both had their licenses.

**Author's Note:**

> Note: Merlin's quote about video games is a meme and not my original idea. Here is [one example](https://twitter.com/thegooglefactz/status/457907047921909760).


End file.
